Hufflepuffian Enigma
by hoglee
Summary: No one could explain why Quinn Fabray had been placed in Hufflepuff. Santana always upheld that George Weasley's kid had drugged the sorting hat that day. But Rachel knew. *For want of a better word this is a hoglee story  Glee at Hogwarts .


No one could explain why Quinn Fabray had been placed in Hufflepuff.

The Sorting Hat had certainly taken its time when it had been her turn, back in first year. So much time that there had been all sorts of whispers circulating regarding how "messed up" the girl would have to be to confuse the sorting hat. What was this girl?

They soon found out.

Quinn was a bitch. There was no other word for it. She strode through the corridors "as if her pure-blood parents owned the bloody castle!" as one Weasley had exclaimed. Even the seventh years made a habit of keeping out of her way.

Now in her sixth year, she was still an enigma to her schoolfellows. In fact there was a rumour going around that even the Bloody Baron and Nearly-Headless Nick agreed that the Sorting Hat had made a mistake. It was almost certainly true. No one who had ever met the Fabray girl could help talking about her.

She was ambitious, that much was obvious. The way Quinn acted you'd think she was running for Minister of Magic (which many professors thought might actually be the case). Slytherin would have been proud to have her. Her best friend, Santana Lopez, in particular always regretted her house's loss in not getting Quinn, though she wouldn't have admitted it to the blonde's face under torture. Santana always upheld that George and Angela's son had got the Sorting Hat stoned that day.

It was also apparent to even the most oblivious that Quinn was smart. Irritatingly so. Her grades were impeccable, her Quidditch strategies so complex that Harry and Ginny's kid had trouble following them, and her quick tongue was widely feared by those who crossed her. Mcgonagal had actually offered to intervene and switch Quinn to Ravenclaw. It was the school governors' ruling that the Sorting Hat's word was final that prevented her from doing so.

Hell the girl could even have gone into Gryffindor with the guts that she had. Quinn had single-handedly taken on the giant squid to win a bet and was well known for risking her neck for a win.

And yet, she had been placed in Hufflepuff. As far as anyone could see, Quinn was neither good nor kind nor true. She sailed through her exams with far too much ease for anyone to claim that she had worked for them; her loyalty was obviously disproved on the numerous occasions where she had cheated on her boyfriend, Finn; she was certainly not known for being fair. After all, her very existence proved to most that life was horribly _un_fair.

No, nobody could explain it.

Nobody that is, except Rachel Berry. The Sorting Hat had also spent an unusually long time sorting her, only no one could doubt that _she_ had been correctly placed into 'Badger House'.

Yes, ok, she was also notoriously ambitious, was one of the brightest students in her year and clearly had a hell of a lot of spunk to be so utterly and completely herself; but she was kind to everyone, true to herself and others, fiercely loyal to her best friends Kurt, Mercedes and Finn, worked herself half to death, was scrupulously fair and just so inherently _good_ that nobody questioned her placement in Hufflepuff for a second.

It seemed that she and Quinn were perfectly poised to be Nemesis to each other. Quinn quidditch captain, prefect, popular, and dating the head-boy; Rachel glee club captain, library monitor, bottom of the food-chain, single and with two gay muggle dads to boot. Still, Rachel thought idly as she stared at the blonde from further down the table, was it so very strange that she was in love with the girl?

Said girl turned her head and, catching Rachel's gaze, looked disdainfully at the brunette whose spaghetti was hanging half out of her mouth.

"Much as I love seeing your half-masticated dinner, Stubbles…"

Rachel swallowed and smiled sadly as Quinn's entourage laughed sycophantically. She continued to gaze wistfully at Quinn however, and as the conversation around her resumed, the blonde met her gaze again.

Rachel knew Quinn was trying to stare her down and didn't have a romantic thought in her head at that time, but she couldn't help but keep gazing adoringly at the stormy seas. Eventually Quinn huffed and stood up. Cue entourage to follow her but she waved them down impatiently, stalking over and swinging into the seat opposite Rachel.

"Quit staring at me Flipper-Feet!"

"Why? Scared you've got something on your face and everyone's too terrified to tell you?"

"Just because people tell _you_ to shove a bag over your head…"

Rachel hated this, hated HBIC Quinn. But she was still sure. Sure that the Sorting Hat hadn't been mistaken. She knew because Quinn had a steel band of loyalty that forced her to stand up for her friends and, when she needed it most, Rachel. Knew because Quinn never hurt Rachel when she was down. Knew because Quinn was too fair to ever bludger her smaller quidditch opponents, no matter how desperate the game; because Quinn worked damn hard to perfect everything she did and because Quinn had never lied to Rachel. She bit her lip as the blonde gave one last smirk and got up to join the Slytherin table.

"Berry's doing it again", she whined.

Santana rolled her eyes. "Get into her star-spangled pants already!"

Quinn just ignored the often-repeated jibe and stole some of Santana's bacon.

"Hey!"

"Guess you were too distracted by the thought of me in Berry's pants".

"Oh honey, you don't work out _that_ much".

Quinn simply stole another slice of bacon and the two continued to barb each other.

Quinn knew a lot about people. She had an awesome gaydar, could spot suck-ups a mile off, could list 106 ways of inciting infatuation and was well aware that Berry had a giant gay crush on her. The one thing she didn't know was how the hell did Berry read the blonde so well. Quinn was not delusional. She _knew_ that her HBIC façade was impregnable and only broken by a select few (comprising of Santana, Brittany, Finn and, on occasion, Kurt 'n' Mercedes (the two were kind of a package deal) ). Still, she could not deny that Berry seemed to know, better than all of the others put together, exactly what was going on in her head at any given moment.

She knew some people looked on the pair as 'frenemies' but she thought their behaviour was closer to exes. She had always felt so vulnerable to Berry that the obvious course would've been to offer friendship but Quinn could never do it. She could claim it was the midget's annoying persona but in perfect honestly Quinn had never seen the problem people had with Rac…_Berry_. In reality Quinn knew it was simply because someone _that_ comfortable in themselves threw her completely. That and the fact she had a rep to keep up, of course.

As a result she and Berry dove from insults and fights to embraces and shared tears and back far more quickly than any two people who were simply friends or enemies could justify.

She had started this sixth year with insults of course. After all, the previous week Rachel had got her through a complete emotional breakdown from the pangs over Beth. Quinn was eager to reinforce the normal pattern.

She scanned the time-table, sipping cautiously on her much needed caffeine shot. Brittany skidded into the seat opposite.

"Morning!" she all but squealed.

Quinn winced. "Hi" she muttered. Needless to say, she was _not_ a morning person.

"I worked out an awesome new dance routine for glee! You really should join again, don't you miss it at all? We all miss you, even San- but don't tell her I told you. And Rachel told Mr. Schu that he shouldn't have been so harsh on you and she told me that we needed you to complete our dodecasongic harmonies".

Quinn looked up. "Berry said _that_?"

Brittany nodded happily.

Quinn looked down again, pretending to be absorbed in learning her timetable. She was pretty sure that there was no such word as dodecasongic. That meant Rachel was making stuff up to get Quinn back. Really it was almost flattering! And if Rachel wanted her back _that _much… and she _did_ kind of owe her for the summer… maybe she _would _rejoin glee.

There was a thud as Finn fell onto the bench next to Brittany.

"Hi Quinn!" he gave her a huge, sweet grin.

She smiled back.

"I missed you after the prefects meeting last night", he nudged her leg under the table.

"Oh, I know. I missed you too. Mcgonagal made me stay behind"

"Oh. Well hey, do you want to come into Hogsmeade with me tonight?"

"Kind of like a back-to-school date?"

"Kinda", Finn smiled again.

"I'd love to". Quinn took his hand. "So what lessons have you got this morning?"

Finn laughed. "I haven't. Free, free, heads meeting with Mcgonagal, free!"

Quinn playfully slapped his hand. "Shush you! I've got double theory of sport then double law and regulation!"

Finn chuckled good-naturedly. "Think I'll go for a nap, see you at lunch", he teased, leaving before she could retaliate.

"Aw!" Brittany cooed.

Quinn rolled her eyes and in doing so caught Berry staring at her _again._ "Oh for goodness sake!" she muttered, marching towards the girl. Quinn was tired of feeling uncomfortable every time she turned to Rachel when she was down, feeling that she was taken advantage of the girl's feelings. Well she was going to do them both a favour.

"Look man-hands, quit giving me the doe-eyes! You're attractive and all that but I'm really not into _that_", Quinn turned on her heel and was just about to sway off when Rachel blurted

"Quinn, do you want to go on a date with me?"

"Yes", Quinn replied instantly, spinning back around, sounding horrendously gooey even to her own ears.

Rachel's eyebrows shot up in surprise, "_Really_?"

Quinn cringed and gave an unwilling nod.

"But I… I was just hoping to plant the idea in your head, I was expecting to have to work for months to actually get you to agree, what about all the big gestures I planned, I haven't even thought of any actual _dates_ yet… Why the hell did you say yes, you've ruined everything!" By this time Rachel was standing, shaking with indignation. At the end of her rant she stamped her foot.

There was a sickening crunch.

Quinn rolled her eyes as Rachel tried to hold back tears because, damn it, breaking your toe is surprisingly painful.

"C'mon Berry, let's get you to the hospital wing", Quinn was painfully aware of the eyes of the entire school on them.

"I'm perfectly capable of going myself, thank you. I don't need _your_ help!" She began to limp off, wincing.

"Why the hell are you even mad at me, Berry?" Quinn yelled, the familiar anger suddenly bubbling up inside her. "Because I agreed to date you? Because I'm not as big a bitch as you thought?"

"Don't project, Q! _I_ don't think you're a bitch", Rachel retorted. "You can rarely bring yourself to _genuinely_ hurt anyone".

Quinn squirmed. "Don't splurge all of my stuff out in front of the school", she whined, looking around at all the students who were watching, enthralled. "I have a rep!"

Rachel laughed. "OK, I won't let them know why you're in Hufflepuff", she stage-whispered.

A gasp ran through the hall. Rachel _knew_?

"I'm gonna freaking kill you, Berry", Quinn growled.

Rachel leaned forward over the table, lowering her voice. Quinn leaned in, in spite of herself.

"You were sorted into Hufflepuff because I begged the Sorting Hat to give me a chance with you", Rachel purred.

Green eyes met brown.

Rachel could see that Quinn was torn between amusement and pleasure at the line.

"Don't blow it then", Quinn murmured.

They leaned it just slightly closer, closing the gap between their mouths. It was brief and broken apart when everyone in the hall started yelling "What the _hell…_" but…

"Oh. My. _God._"

The brunette smirked. "Feel free to call me Rachel".

Quinn raised the infamous eyebrow before suddenly vaulting the table and sweeping the midget into her arms.

"Right, hospital wing!"

"Y'know there are also lots of beds in our dorm…"

"Rachel Berry, stop trying to seduce me! I haven't broken up with Finn yet!"

Rachel gasped, nearly tumbling out of Quinn's embrace. Finn was one of her best friends.

Quinn rolled her eyes again. "Chill Berry, we're just 'bearding' each other. Finn's totally hot for Puck".

Rachel raised a quizzical eyebrow.

"Yes, really", the blonde assured her.

Rachel stroked Quinn's abs, watching as the green eyes fired up. "I always wanted to date a quidditch player".

Quinn tried to suppress the heat rising between her legs and swallowed. "You're not getting out of this Berry". She kept walking.

Rachel pouted. "But Quinn…"

"Nope".

Rachel huffed. "Fine but you better be ready and waiting in your quidditch kit when I get up there".

Quinn promptly thrust Rachel at Madam Pomfrey's door and bolted.

"What's the rush?" Rachel called.

"Are you kidding? Five years of imagining this!"

Rachel giggled and then muttered a quick healing spell as Quinn disappeared round the corner. Madame Pomfrey was hardly necessary for a broken toe she thought smugly.

Operation Get-Quinn-Angry-Then-Kiss-Her was going exactly to plan.


End file.
